


Interwoven Destinies

by Moon_Blitz



Category: Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02, Digimon Tamers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Het, M/M, Slash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-12-24
Updated: 2012-12-24
Packaged: 2017-11-22 06:40:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/606921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moon_Blitz/pseuds/Moon_Blitz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four years after the defeat of the Dark Masters, a new enemy known only as the Digimon Emperor has set out to take over the Digital World. New DigiDestined are called upon to restore peace, but things are never as simple as they first seem...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Birth of an Empire

**Chapter Summary** : Takako's world is turned upside down when she is suddenly transported to a mysterious grey ocean.

 

Chapter 1: The Birth of an Empire

“Takako dear, how was lunch?” her aunt asked with a smile as she took away the half-eaten sandwich. Takako stared down at her lap, not wanting to lie to her aunt even though she hadn’t really enjoyed it. Food tasted bland now, and she had to force herself to eat.

“It was fine. Thank you.” Rising from the table, she bowed to her aunt and tried to smile back. “May I go to the park and play?” She desperately wanted to leave the house, the place that her parents were never coming back to, but she hadn’t been able to go out since the day of the funeral.

“Go ahead. The fresh air will do you good,” her aunt replied, and Takako nodded silently.

“H-Hey! I gotta come too! Wait for me!” Kai burst out, frantically cramming the remains of his sandwich into his mouth. Takako bit back a frown and patiently waited for him to finish. It wasn’t that she disliked her older cousin, but she felt no real connection to him or his parents. She was all alone now, with no one to look after her. Sure, her aunt and uncle said they would take her in, but she knew she was a burden on them - after all, they were moving all the way from Okinawa just to take care of her. They were moving because they had to, not because they wanted to.

“Alright, let’s go!” Kai cried, wiping crumbs from his face and pulling her out to the entryway. She tried not to look at the spot where her parents’ slippers still sat as she put on her coat and shoes, knowing they would never wear them again.

The short walk to the park was a quiet one. Takako was distantly aware of the cool wind as it hit her face, turning her cheeks red quickly. The old her would have been delighted to chase the leaf whirlwinds the wind formed, but instead she just watched them blow by. Didn’t autumn symbolize death? Perhaps her parents should have died in this season, then, instead of in the spring.

Kai looked at her once they reached the park, clearly wondering what she wanted to do but being too shy to ask. All she really wanted to do was sit on a bench and stay there until she died, but that wouldn’t happen anytime soon. So instead she walked stiffly over to the swings and sat on one.

“Do you want me to push you?” Kai asked hopefully, but she just shook her head. He looked disappointed at her rejection and sat on a swing himself, slowly pushing back and forth to build up momentum. She stared at the ground in misery, the squeak of the swing-set the only sound beside the wind.

No, there was another sound. Takako lifted her gaze from the dead grass and looked around. It was odd, but she could have sworn she just heard the sound of waves. But the harbour was too far away from the park to be heard, and it was too cold for a wave pool to be set up. She looked over at Kai, but her cousin showed no sign of having heard the sound. And it was growing louder too, like she was coming closer to it.

Takako bit her lip, listening to hear where the sound was coming from. She had to be going crazy. People did that all the time when the people they loved died, the news said so. But she couldn’t let Kai know she was hearing things, because then he would tell his parents and she wouldn’t see them any more because the grownups would take her away and lock her up with the other crazy people.

“I’m going to play over there,” she said after another minute of listening, pointing towards the cluster of mushroom-shaped equipment that sat in the corner of the park. The top of the mushrooms were hollow inside so kids could play games or take shelter from the rain in them, but sometimes the older kids used them for doing other things too.

“Ok. Just shout if you need me.” Kai was smiling, but for some reason his eyes looked sad. Nodding to show she understood, Takako left her cousin to the swing-set and jogged over to the mushrooms. The sound of the waves grew as she got closer, but then she stopped suddenly. The grass was gone, replaced by grey sand, and it almost seemed like the mushrooms were standing in water. She blinked and realised they were, for the water shimmered as incoming waves went around them to lap at the sand just a few feet in front of her.

Takako turned around to see of Kai was watching, and gasped. The playground was gone. No, the whole city was gone! She now stood facing a cliff of dark grey stone, which loomed out of the fog that seemed to envelope her like a blanket. “W-Where am I?” she whispered, her stomach clenching in fear. Was she seeing things too, now? Had she died? Was her parents’ death and all of this just a horrible nightmare?

Turning around again, Takako stared at the grey ocean which stretched into the fog bank which hid the horizon. She was lost, and she didn’t know the way home, or even if there was a way home. Sniffling and sinking to her knees, Takako broke down and cried. She sobbed, her tears being soaked up by the grey sand as they fell. She sobbed for what felt like an hour, only stopping when her throat was ragged and her head pounding. Wiping her eyes, she sniffled and looked around again.

It was like all the colour had been sucked out of the world, because everything was either grey, black, or white. She had felt like she had been surrounded by such a world since her parents died, but she had no idea there was a literally grey world out there. Her gaze eventually landed on a black beam that cut through the fog every few seconds, and she realised there was a lighthouse of some sort farther along the beach. She had seen one once while visiting Kai. Maybe there were people there?

“H-Hello? Hello!” she called, rising and walking in the direction of the lighthouse. “Is anyone there?” For a moment, there was only the sound of waves meeting the shoreline, then there was a distant shout. Convinced it was not an echo of some sort, Takako called out again.

“Hello! I’m over here!” Perhaps it was someone from the lighthouse who could tell her how to get home. Because now she wanted to go back; back to Kai, back to her aunt and uncle, back to her parent’s graves. The fog seemed to lift slightly, pulling back from the beach so she could see more clearly. A figure was running along the beach towards her and Takako broke into a run as well, eager to see who her rescuer was.

But as the person came closer, her faint hope died and she felt like crying again. It was only a little boy! He looked to be around her own age and had straight black hair and eyes with a heavy coat and sneakers. Everything he wore was some shade of grey, so perhaps he was a part of this colourless world. He looked just as disappointed to see her, slowing to a walk and then stopping not far away.

“You got stuck here too?” he asked, eying her with faint interest.

“Y-Yeah. I heard the waves and followed the sound. Then I was here,” Takako explained, wondering what to do now. Were they going to be trapped here forever?

“That’s what I did too,” the boy confirmed with a slight nod. “Ah…I’m Ken Ijijouji. Nice to meet you.”

She found it odd to be introducing herself to a stranger in a place like this, but her parents had raised her to be polite. “Pleased to meet you, Ken. I’m Takako Masuki.” They bowed to each other, then stood there awkwardly.

“What is this place?” she asked at last, looking inland towards the cliff. Perhaps there was a way for them to climb it and go find help.

“I don’t know,” Ken answered, sounding frustrated. “I was looking for my soccer ball when I heard the waves. If I don’t get home before evening, my parents will worry.”

“I left my cousin to go play at the other end of the park…He’ll get scared if I don’t get back soon.” Takako bit her lip, blinking back tears. As she did so, she saw a glimmer of light from the base of the cliff. “What’s that?”

“What’s what?” Ken took a few steps towards the cliff as she pointed towards the light, then walked quickly over. Following more cautiously, Takako peered around him to see two small devices lying on the rocks at the bottom of the cliff. They seemed to be a about the size of her palm and had a square centre screen with a large button on one side and two smaller buttons on the other side. A stubby antenna stuck out from the top.

“What are they?” she asked, joining Ken as he bent down to take a closer look. The screen on both devices was cracked, but they were still glowing faintly. It was that glow which had attracted her attention earlier.

“Not sure. Some sort of electronic device, maybe?” Ken replied, reaching out to pick one up.

“Don’t touch it!” she cried, grabbing his hand to stop it.

Ken turned to look at her, eyes narrowed in disdain. “I doubt they’re going to explode,” he said with a snort, jerking his hand out of hers and picking up one of the devices. Takako gasped with fright, but the device did nothing out then let out a low beep as the screen stopped glowing. “That was anticlimactic…” the boy muttered, examining the item more closely.

Still afraid something bad would happen, Takako carefully picked up the other one, stiffening as hers did the same things as Ken’s.

“Hmph. It appears to be broken,” Ken said dismissively, clearly not impressed with the device.

“I think it’s kinda cool…” Takako said, turning the item over in her hand a few times. It looked like a toy Kai might play with. Maybe he or his father would be able to fix the device. Of course, she had to get home for that to happen. A small rock clattered suddenly onto the rocks beside them, making her jump and huddle up next to Ken. “W-What was t-that?”

“Noth-No, wait.” Ken was suddenly alert, looking around at the cliff as if noticing something he hadn’t before. “Move back a little, Takako.”

The girl obeyed, somewhat pleased that he had called her by name, then gasped as more rocks fell from the cliff. “Is it an earthquake?”

“No…hear that sound? It’s like someone’s digging through the cliff,” Ken answered, sounding slightly annoyed for some reason.

Takako listened hard for a moment, then nodded. “Oh, you’re right. I hear it now.”

“Shhh!”

They stood in silence as the sound grew in volume, eventually becoming louder than the waves lapping against the shore. Ken stepped in front of her as more rocks were dislodged, then the cliff face to their right exploded in a shower of rocks and dust. Takako flinched, taking a few steps back and coughing from the dust.

“You did it! We’re out!” an unfamiliar male voice said, sounding elated.

“Told you I could dig through this stuff. Now let’s see where we are!” an equally strange female voice answered, tone smug.

Ken backed away as well as the dust settled, revealing two monsters straight out of a movie. Takako’s gaze was drawn to the large dinosaur-like creature, its red hide and golden eyes making it stand out against the dark grey cliff. As she watched, it shook its head and sneezed, rubbing its snout with a claw a moment later. Her eyes then dropped to the green caterpillar at the dinosaur’s feet, taking in its pink claws and bright blue eyes.

“What are you?” Ken asked challengingly, shifting to stand in front of Takako again. Both monsters looked over then, apparently not having noticed them before.

“A-Ah! You must be Ken! I’m your partner, Wormon!” the caterpillar exclaimed, revealing himself to be the male who had spoken first.

“And I’m Guilmon. Pleasure to meet you, Takako,” the red dinosaur said pleasantly, then added, “We are Digimon, which is short for Digital Monsters. We live in a place called the Digital World.”

“Digimon? Digital World? What are you talking about?” Ken sounded confused, but Takako blinked as the words sparked a memory.

“Wait…are you connected to that weird movie that was on the internet this summer?” She had been online, trying to forget that her parents had just died in a horrible car accident, when a strange movie had popped up on her screen. Try as she might, it hadn’t gone away, so she had watched the battle shown and assumed it was a promotion of some kind.

“Movie? Oh, that thing. Why do you think they’re related?” Ken asked, turning slightly to look at her.

“Er, well, I think I remember the monsters’ names ending in ‘mon’,” she replied hesitantly, unsure if she was saying the right thing.

The red dinosaur - Guilmon, she supposed she should call her - smiled and nodded. “I don’t know the details of that, but if the creatures you saw had ‘mon’ at the ends of their names, they were Digimon.”

“Ok, so say they were these Digimon things. What does that have to do with us? And how do you know our names?” Ken asked sharply, facing the two Digimon again.

“As I said before, Ken, we are your partners. You were chosen to help the Digital World in the future, and we were the ones chosen to protect you. We’ve known ever since we were born that you were coming, so we’ve been waiting for you to arrive.” Wormon said gently, moving forward a few steps and looking up at the boy with wide eyes.

Ken took a step backwards at that, and Takako stepped around him to approach Guilmon. “So is this the Digital World?”

Guilmon frowned and shook her head. “No, it’s not. I have no idea what this place is…except it smells bad.”

Takako had to keep herself from smiling at her comment. She shouldn’t smile anymore, not with all that had happened to her. “That’s just the smell of the ocean, you’ll get used to it eventually.” Then a thought occurred to her. “If we’re supposed to help your world when we grow up, what are we doing here?”

“I don’t know,” Guilmon said with another frown. “You came too early I think, but it all worked out in the end. We found you and you got your Digivices. When you’re needed, you’ll be called back.” Takako thought the Digimon looked worried, but didn’t understand why. Everything was fine, wasn’t it?

“So we’re to help you guys in the future, huh? If that’s what these things are for, then forget it. They’re broken.” They all turned at Ken’s words to see him staring intently at the device in his hand.

“Is it? Oh dear, that’s not good at all. Your Digivice is the most important thing you have as a DigiDestined…” Wormon moaned, tapping his front claws together anxiously.

Takako froze as Guilmon came forward to sniff at the one she held, then spoke. “It might fix itself if you put it in water.”

“Seriously? How dumb do you think I am? Water destroys electronic things, not fixes them!” Ken snapped, and she flinched at the harsh tone in his voice.

“B-But…” she stammered, stopping for a moment when he glared at her, “I-If this isn’t home or the Digital World, maybe water works differently here?”

“Exactly what I was about to say. See, we’re meant to be partners!” This time, Takako did smile at Guilmon’s words. For some reason, being around the creature made her feel better.

“This whole thing is crazy. Digimon. Digivice. DigiDestined. Digi, digi, digi. Digidumb, I say.” Ken scowled down at the device in his hands, then sighed. “Whatever. Maybe this crazy world runs on crazy logic.” With that, he turned and marched towards the ocean, ignoring Takako and the Digimon.

“Ken, wait!” Wormon called, scuttling after him.

“Let’s go too.” Guilmon said quietly, and Takako nodded. She didn’t want Ken getting hurt if things went wrong.

They caught up the Ken at the water’s edge, and he gave her a sideways look. “Ready to get wet?”

“Yeah.”

Together, they stepped into the grey sea, walking unto the water was up to their waists. Ken held up his Digivice in both hands and Takako did the same, and they plunged their arms into the water at the same time.

“Fix yourself. Fix yourself and give me the power I need,” he muttered softly, almost to himself. Takako focused on the cracked screen of her Digivice, trying to channel her thoughts the way some people on TV did to make things happen. Power. Power would be nice. If she had had power five months ago, perhaps her parents wouldn’t have died and she would have a loving home to go back to instead of strangers. If Guilmon and this Digivice could grant her the power to stop things like that from happening, then yes, she wanted it to be fixed.

For a long minute, nothing happened. Then Takako felt something inside of her break open, and the water around her Digivice grew murky. She watched in amazement as the crack in the screen sealed itself up and the grime and dents on the device disappeared. It was working!

But that wasn’t the end of it. Her Digivice changed shape then, the bottom part bulging out and widening a little. The entire Digivice lost its bulky edges, smoothing into a near oval shape. The buttons shifted position and changed shape along with the screen, and handgrips formed along both sides. The antenna also changed slightly, growing longer and sliding down to poke out just above the right-side handgrip. Finally, the Digivice turned from a light grey to black.

“Wow…” she breathed, wide-eyed at the changes. Guilmon had been right, the water had worked! Ken made a similar sound of surprise, and she glanced over to see that his had undergone the same transformation. Lifting their Digivices out of the water, they examined the others’ silently. The only difference Takako could see between them was that her handgrips were dark red while his were grey.

“That’s a little bit cool,” Ken said, and she was surprised to see a slight smile on his face. In fact, his entire demeanour seemed to have changed along with his Digivice - there was a spark in his eyes that she hadn’t noticed before, and he was standing a little bit straighter.

“Yeah,” she agreed, giving him a smile in return as they walked back to their partners. Takako suddenly felt alive in a way that she hadn’t been since the accident, and it felt kind of good. “Do you want to go home together?” After what they had just been through, she didn’t want to leave him just yet.

Ken hesitated before nodding, and she hoped she hadn’t made him mad. “Yeah, sure.”

“Oh good, they’re fixed.” Wormon looked pleased as they held out their Digivices for their partners to see, then added, “Alright, let’s get you home. I’m pretty sure the tunnel Guilmon dug will take you back.”

“Great, let’s go,” Ken said briskly, and Takako nodded in agreement. It was time to leave this place and go home.

“It was nice to meet you, Guilmon.” she said hesitantly as they walked towards the spot where the two Digimon had appeared.

“It was nice to finally meet you too, Takako. Take care of yourself, ok?” Guilmon answered, surprising the girl by nuzzling her shoulder lightly.

“I will,” she promised. She had to if she was going to help out Guilmon’s home someday.

“You’re not going to be like this in the future, are you?” She looked over at Ken’s slightly irritated tone to see Wormon clinging to the boy’s leg, face pressed against his knee.

“I’ll try not to be, Ken. I’m just so happy to have finally met you after so long.” the Digimon replied, releasing his partner and instead tapping his foot with a claw.

“I see.” Ken didn’t look entirely convinced by the promise, but he let the matter slide and motioned to Takako to go into the tunnel. “Ladies first.”

With a small wave goodbye to her smiling partner, Takako entered the tunnel, pleased that she was able to stand up straight in it. Walking into the darkness was a bit scary, but she knew Ken was right behind her in case something happened. They walked for what seemed to be miles, and then the tunnel grew smaller, forced her to crouch, then crawl. But soon she saw light up ahead and hurried towards it, eager to leave the grey ocean behind.

She emerged inside one of the playground mushrooms and blinked a few times before going to the hole in the floor and dropping to the ground.

“Takako! There you are!” She turned to find her cousin jogging towards her, relief apparent on his face. “Were you hiding in there the whole time?”

“Uh…yeah. I didn’t mean to scare you…” she answered, quickly shoving her Digivice into her coat pocket. If asked, she could just say she found it in the park.

“Jeeze, I was starting to think you ran off…Huh? Did you make a new friend?” Kai asked, peering around her curiously.

Turning to look as well, Takako was surprised to see Ken standing behind her, looking just as surprised and a little lost.

“Yeah. This is Ken. Ken, this is Kai, my cousin,” she said quickly, hoping Kai would assume they had met up in the mushroom and wouldn’t ask any weird questions.

“Pleasure to meet you Kai,” Ken said with a bow, and her cousin returned it with a smile.

“Come on, we better get going. I was thinking of watching a movie once we get home - do you want to pick which one?” Takako was surprised by her cousin’s offer, and nodded hesitantly. It might be good to get closer to him while she waited to be called back to the Digital World.

“I’ll be there in a minute, ’kay?” Kai accepted her words with a nod and moved off to let her and Ken talk. Turning to the boy behind her, she said, “This is a park in Tamachi. Is your home far?”

“Oh, I recognize this place now. Sam used to bring me here sometimes.” Ken’s face clouded over for a moment, but then he answered her question. “No, I’m just a few blocks over. Want to meet here tomorrow after school and exchange addresses?”

“Sure!” she agreed with a nod, then smiled and took a step back. “I better go. See you tomorrow, Ken.”

The boy smiled back and nodded. “See you then, Takako.” Nodding one final time, Takako gave him a small wave and turned to go back to her cousin. Until the day she and Ken got called to the Digital World, she would keep her promise to Guilmon and take care of herself, and that meant living again. It would be hard, but she would do it.


	2. To the Digital World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new and powerful evil force is threatening the Digital World, and new DigiDestined are chosen to fight it.

Chapter 2: To the Digital World

“Where did he _go?!_ ” Ken snarled at the screen, gripping the arms of his throne in fury. He didn’t have time to play tag, class started in an hour! The lone human and his partner had seemingly vanished into the thick jungle, and none of Ken’s cameras could find him. It was _always_ like this. That blasted DigiDestined and his partner would appear and attack, prompting Ken to send out an attack force of his own, with the end result being that the traitorous human would run away before he or his pathetic partner got captured.

The Emperor’s eyes narrowed behind his tinted glasses as he calmed down and considered his options. Some of his slaves had already located all the TV sets in the area and were keeping close watch on them, so he knew that the other human hadn’t left yet. That meant that his opponent must be hiding somewhere nearby, waiting for a chance to escape. “Well, I’m not going to let you go so easily. Not this time…” Ken hissed to the screens around him. Raising a hand, he summoned a keypad and typed out a message. Time to send for reinforcements.

\- - -

“Hm?” Tai looked down at his pocket as a beeping sound came from it, quickly realizing what it was from. “Hey, I got an e-mail! I wonder if it’s from Matt?” Smiling as he dug out a palmtop computer with buttons along the edges, he eagerly flipped the top part open, revealing a screen on the reverse side. “Let’s see here…” Pressing a few buttons, he called up his e-mail account and opened the new message.

_Subject: Help!_

_To: Tai Kamiya  
From: Unknown Sender_

_The Digital World is in trouble again and needs your help. Notify the others and come as soon as you are able to._

“Well that’s cryptic. Definitely not from Matt, then. Gennai maybe?” Tai stared at the message for a few seconds longer, then tucked his book bag under his arm and opened a blank e-mail. He was almost at school, and since he had some time before class, he would go investigate the Digital World and see what was wrong. But in order to do that, he needed some help to get there.

\- - -

“Tai! What’s wrong?” Izzy asked, taking a quick look up and down the hallway before closing the door to the computer lab.

“Glad you could come on such short notice, Izzy.” Tai smiled at the shorter red-headed teen, getting a hesitant one in return.

“No problem, although I can’t stay long - I told the teacher there was an emergency that only I could handle and that I would be back before class started,” his friend said, settling into the chair beside him.

“I’m not sure if this counts as an emergency or not, but it might be.” Tai held out a print-off of the e-mail and allowed a moment for Izzy to read it. “I got this on my way here, and I think it’s real. Could you try and access the Digital World from here?”

“Mmm…perhaps.” Izzy rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he re-read the mysterious message. “Unknown sender, huh? It might be a trap by a particularly evil Digimon, you know.”

“I hope not. I really don’t want to fight another Diaboromon again.” Tai frowned at the memory, then continued, “I don’t care if it’s a trap or not, I think we should check it out. I also don’t want to get the others involved if I can help it, at least not until we know what we’re dealing with.” It was the start of a new school year for everyone, and he didn’t want to make things any more hectic than they needed to be for their friends.

“As much as I hate to admit it, that’s probably a good idea,” Izzy said with a sigh, then nodded and rose. “I can’t do anything right now, but I can definitely work during lunch. If I get a connection, I’ll certainly let you know.”

“That’s great. You’re the best, Izzy!” Tai exclaimed, giving his friend a grin as he got up as well. His friend accepted the compliment with a smile, then went to the teacher’s desk at the back of the room and quickly wrote on a piece of paper.

“I’ll just leave a note for the teacher saying that I fixed the problem, just in case someone tells him about it,” Izzy explained, folding the note in half and leaving it on the desk before joining Tai by the door.

“That’s probably a good idea. The last thing the teachers need today is an apparent computer malfunction.”

“Yeah, that would be really bad. But since I am the new head of the Computer Club here, I’ll be able to fix any problem that does come up,” his friend said, opening the door and glancing out into the hallway.

“Oh yeah, that’s right. Did you hear who is taking your place at our old school?” Tai asked, following the younger male out the door.

“Uh…” Izzy thought for a moment, then nodded. “I believe it’s a sixth-grader of some sort. Not sure what their name is, though. Wong, maybe?”

“They’re not a mini version of you, are they? I don’t think the school could handle two of you back-to-back!” Tai chuckled as Izzy frowned and shot him a glare as they walked down the hall.

“Of course not, Tai. Don’t be ridiculous. They’re probably be great, but _I’m_ the expert here. They’ll just have to manage without me,” the teen answered with a touch of smugness in his voice.

“I’m sure they will, Izzy. I’m going this way - e-mail me as soon as you know for sure!” Tai replied, backing down the hallway towards his class and flashing his friend a parting smile.

“Will do,” Izzy confirmed, waving goodbye before quickly walking in the direction of his classroom. Tai paused to watch him go, confident that he would soon be back in the Digital World and be able to get to the bottom of that weird message.

\- - -

“See you at lunch!” Davis waved goodbye to Kazu and continued down the hall to his own classroom, a smile on his face. Walking into the room, he felt his spirits lift even further as he spotted the one person he most wanted to see. “Hey Kari! Glad to see we’re in the same class again!”

The brown-haired girl looked up at him with a smile, clearly pleased to see him. “Hi Davis. I saw your practice this morning - how’d it go?”

Davis felt a rush go through him at her words, and he grinned with pleasure. “Oh y’know, it was nothing serious. We still won, though. Some new kid said I looked familiar - bet they thought I was a movie star or something. No idea who they were, though.”

“I’m sure we’ll find out eventually,” Kari replied with a giggle, then waved him away. “Oh, the teacher’s here. Better get to your seat.”

“’Kay.” Locating his seat from the list on the teacher’s desk, Davis settled into his chair and waited for the rest of the class to do the same. The teacher stood quietly at the front of the room, waiting for silence. Once he had gotten it, the man smiled and looked around the room.

“Before we start today, I would like to introduce two new friends to you all. Please come in.” A murmur went through the class at that, and Davis swung his gaze towards the door. His eyes widened a moment later as a blonde boy dressed in a yellow and green shirt and white pants walked into the class, recognizing him as the kid who had spoke to him before. The black-haired girl who followed was a stranger, though, but he thought she looked kind of pretty, what with her red turtleneck, glasses and brown skirt.

“Everyone, these are two new transfer students. Please be kind to them and make them feel welcome,” the teacher said as he finished writing their names on the board.

Removing the white bucket hat he wore, the blonde boy smiled out at the class and spoke. “I’m TK Takaishi. Nice to meet you.”

The girl was next, and she stared at them for a moment before speaking. “I’m Leah Seta. Nice to meet you all.”

“Good, good. TK, please go sit beside the girl with the camera around her neck.” Davis frowned slightly at that. How come the new guy got to sit next to Kari?! “Leah, please go sit next to the boy with the square goggles.” Looked around, he realized that yes, there was an empty desk beside to him. He smiled as Leah approached, but his gaze quickly swung back to Kari and the new kid. They were smiling and laughing, seemingly getting along great. Davis gritted his teeth and glared at the other boy. That new kid was making moves on his girl! Deciding to straighten him out later, he returned his attention to Leah.

“Hi Leah, I’m Davis. Glad to have you in this class,” he greeted with a smile as she settled in beside him.

“Davis, huh? Thanks. I’m glad to be here,” Leah responded with a faint smile of her own, then focused her attention on the teacher as the class whispered among themselves. Davis did the same, doing his best to keep his eyes away from Kari and the new guy.

“Alright everyone, settle down. I am Mr. Kimimoto, your teacher for this year. Let me do role call, and then we’ll go over the rules of the class. Any questions you have can be answered then.” As Mr. Kimimoto started to call out names, Davis shifted in his seat and smiled to himself. New grade, new friends to make…this school year was going to be great!

\- - -

“Leah, do you want me to show you around? I mean, you probably got a tour and stuff already, but I know this school pretty well too, if I do say so myself.” The girl looked up from packing her backpack and hid a smile. Davis wasn’t too bad of a seat-mate to have, even if he did seem to be distracted easily.

“You don’t mind? I wouldn’t want to keep you from anything.” Or anyone, for that matter. She had noticed the way he looked at a certain girl in class, but she certainly wasn’t about to comment on it, although part of her was dying to say something. New school, new attitude. Her father had hammered that into her in the weeks before moving here. She couldn’t be the person she had been before.

“Nah, it’s all good. Really!” Davis replied, absently adjusting his goggles as he waited for a response. She had no idea why we was wearing them, but perhaps he thought they made him look cool or something. She had seen stranger fashions, after all.

“Then sure, it would be great if you gave me a tour,” Leah answered easily, slipping on her backpack and joining him as he walked out of the class. Davis was right, she had already been shown around, but another tour wouldn’t hurt.

“Awesome! As you can see, our class 7-A is the first class in the Grade 7 wing, even though it’s at the end of the hall,” Davis began enthusiastically, leading her up the hall until they came to the main corridor. He then pointed at the hallway across from where they stood. “That’s the rest of the Grade 7 classrooms there. Grade 8 is on the floor above us. It has the same layout as ours basically, but I don’t know anyone in that grade, so I can’t tell you much else. And Grade 9 is on the bottom floor of the building next door.”

The tour continued as Davis pointed out where the staff room, main office and gym were, patiently answering any questions Leah had and even volunteering to draw her a map if she needed one. “So you belong to the soccer team? What other activities are there?” she asked as they walked across to the other building of the school.

“Well, there’s a baseball team and a badminton team if you’re into sports, otherwise there’s the band club, the art club, and the computer club. The elementary kids have some specialty clubs too, but I don’t think they allow middle school students,” the boy replied, ticking the names off on his fingers as he listed them. “Oh yeah, speaking of the computer club, the computer lab is in this building. It’s just up these stairs.”

Leah nodded silently, considering what he had told her. She wasn’t really interested in joining a club, but she suspected her father might hassle into doing so. And since she didn’t know anyone here, she didn’t know what kind of people were in each club. Perhaps she could start her own or something.

As they approached the computer lab, voices from inside distracted her. “There’s a meeting today?” she asked softly, glancing at her tour guide. Davis shrugged, apparently surprised as her to find students still around. Slowing down as they moved closer, Leah grabbed his shoulder to keep him from darting into the room. She wanted to listen first and find out what was up.

“So why do you need to use a computer?” a girl asked, sounding slightly awe-struck.

“Oh, the battery on my laptop ran out when I was in the middle of something. I would have gone home, but it was quicker to come here and borrow one of yours.” The second speaker was male and sounded like he was a few years older than the girl.

“Must be important if you had to stop here.” Leah’s eyes widened as another girl spoke up, this time recognizing the voice as belonging to one of her classmates. Davis gasped then and jerked free of Leah’s grip, practically bolting into the room.

“Kari! What are you still doing here?!” he exclaimed, and Leah groaned softly to herself. So much for eavesdropping, then. Sighing, she adjusted her glasses and followed Davis into the room, arriving just as Kari answered him.

“Davis? I could ask you the same question.” She noticed Leah then and gave her a small smile which the new student returned. She was surprised to see TK standing next to Kari, and glanced curiously at the older girl with a purple bandana and glasses and the red-haired high-schooler also present. What were they all doing here?

“ _I_ was showing Leah around the school!” Davis replied defensively. “Were you doing the same for _him_?”

Kari frowned at his tone and said, “He has a name, you know. It’s TK.”

“Whatever! So, what are you all doing here? I thought the computer club didn’t start until next week.”

“It doesn’t.” Everyone looked at the older girl as she continued. “Izzy came to me asking if he could get into the lab for a minute, and we ran into Kari and TK along the way.”

“Oh.” Davis paused for a moment, and Leah looked over to see him frowning in thought. “Are you that new computer club president I head about?”

“Nope. I’m Yolei, a member of the computer club, and this is Izzy,” she responded brightly, smiling at all of them. Davis pouted, gaze locked on Kari and TK, so Leah decided to press for more details.

“Alright, so Izzy needed a computer. Is there an emergency of some sort? Can we help?”

The high school student stiffened at her question, and quickly waved his hands. “Ah, no, no, that’s alright! I can definitely handle it by myself, thanks. It’s just a personal matter I have to deal with, that’s all.” Leah frowned at his words, sensing that she was being brushed off.

“I suppose we should let you be, then,” TK said, and Davis muttered something mostly inaudible that ended with ‘TA’ in response.

“I guess so. You _are_ the previous president after all. So! Everyone except Izzy and me out!” Yolei ordered sharply, hands on her hips. Izzy opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted before he could.

“Yolei, aren’t you coming to fix my computer? You said you would.” Leah turned to see a younger boy with a bowl-shaped haircut standing in the doorway.

“Cody! I’m sorry, I nearly forgot. Yeah, I’ll be right there, just give me a sec, ok?” Yolei said with a gasp, then dug a key from her pocket. “Could you lock up once you’re done? Just hang it by the door when you leave.”

“Sure can. Thanks, Yolei,” Izzy replied with a grateful smile and a nod. “And it was nice to meet you all.” Everyone said goodbye to each other and filed out of the room. Leah went last, dropping to the back in order to watch everyone interact.

Yolei turned to address her as they headed for the school entrance. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I caught your name back there.”

“It’s alright, things were kinda hectic. I’m Leah, and the guy with the goggles is Davis. We’re in the same class as TK and Kari,” Leah explained. Davis turned at the mention of his name, then went back to giving TK the evil eye. Clearly someone wasn’t happy with the way things were going.

“Oh, ok. Man, I wish I knew more people in my class!” Yolei exclaimed, dropping back to walk beside her and striking up a conversation.

\- - -

Tai leaned against the cool rock wall of the cave, waiting patiently for a message from Izzy. True to form, his friend had found a way to access the gate to the Digital World, and they had met after school to try it out. He had entered safely and met up with Agumon, but something had gone wrong and he had lost contact with Izzy. And then there was the second strange message.

_Subject: Look Here_

_To: Tai Kamiya  
From: Unknown Sender_

_Come to this location as soon as you can. Hurry, since time is running out!_

Attached to the e-mail had been a map which had led Tai to the tunnel in which he now sat. Which was probably a good thing, since it seemed like someone was looking for him. Peering around the curve of the tunnel wall, he stared at the group of Digimon currently destroying the jungle around the cliffs where he had found the tunnel. They had strange black bands around their bodies, and their eyes shone with a ominous crimson glow.

“Anything from Izzy?” Agumon asked as he turned back.

“Nothing y-oh, hold on a sec,” he answered, looking down at the palmtop computer in his hands as it beeped. Flipping it open, he quickly scanned the message.

_Subject: Sorry!_

_To: Tai Kamiya  
From: Izzy Izumi_

_Sorry Tai, ran into some trouble with my laptop and was delayed. Did you find anything out?_

“Seems like everything’s ok. But since Tentomon’s not here, he should probably stay away…” Tai muttered, typing out a quick message and sending it off.

“Well that’s good. I found something in a cave at the back that you should probably see,” Agumon said, and Tai quickly got up to follow him. Something was definitely going on in the Digital World, and he needed more information than the little his partner knew.

“Huh? What’s this?” Sitting on a small mound at the back of the cave was what appeared to be a Digiegg. A Digiegg with a flame pattern on its shell, a metal blade sticking out the top and emblazoned with the Crest of Courage. Definitely not normal.

“Are those Digimon looking for this?” he asked softly, circling the odd Digiegg.

“No idea. Those guys seem more intent on smashing stuff than finding anything.” Nodding at his partner’s words, the teen eyed the strange Digiegg again. Maybe it was for him, seeing as he was the one who held the Crest of Courage. Well, there was only one way to find out if it was or not. Kneeling down beside it, he reached to pick it up.

“Ahh!” As his fingers touched it, the egg glowered brightly and a pillar of red light came out of it. Squinting against the glare, Tai relaxed as the light quickly faded away.

“Tai, are you alright?!” Agumon asked anxiously, placing a claw on his shoulder to steady the teen as he leaned away from the egg.

“I think so.” He hadn’t felt any pain or anything, just a weird tingling sensation in the fingertips. “Are those fireflies?” Five glowing red dots had materialized above the strange Digiegg, where they hung for a moment before shooting out of the distant hole in the roof of the cave.

“If they were, they’re really fast ones,” Agumon replied, following Tai as he moved to sit against the cave wall again.

“I better contact Izzy and tell him about this. Could you go see if it’s safe outside?” First the Digimon with the glowing eyes, and now a strange Digiegg with his crest on it. Whoever had sent him that e-mail this morning had been right - the Digital World certainly appeared to be in trouble again.

\- - -

TK checked his backpack one final time to make sure he had everything he needed. No homework had been given out since it was the first day of classes, but there were a bunch of papers he knew his mom would want to see.

Satisfied that he hadn’t forgotten anything, he faced his three classmates to say goodbye. “See you guys tomorrow. Have a good evening.”

“Bye TK. Have a good evening too,” Kari answered, and they shared a smile. He hadn’t imagined that they would end up sharing the same class, but it was great to be with an old friend again.

“Yeah, bye.” Davis still looked upset with him, and TK wasn’t quite sure why. He seemed like a nice enough kid after all, if a bit weird at times.

“Good night. See you in the morning.” Leah was the last to answer, and he returned her polite nod as he passed by her to go out the door. TK wondered how she felt, transferring to a new school like this. Personally, he liked being back in Tokyo, but maybe she didn’t like big cities. Deciding to ask her about it sometime, he smiled and broke into a jog. Yolei and Cody had agreed to walk home with him, and he didn’t want to keep them waiting.

It only took him a minute to find his two new neighbours, and he gave them both a smile as he approached. “Thanks for waiting, let’s get going.”

“Right behind you!” Yolei said with a grin, and they began to walk away from the school. But TK had hardly taken three steps before lights flashed from behind him, making him jump and spin around.

“What-” he began, then stopped as he saw what had just appeared in their hands. “No. No way…” They were both holding what seemed to be Digivices, although that was impossible.

“Wait, you know what this thing is?” Yolei asked sharply, jerking her head up to stare at him.

“Um, I think so…” TK quickly dug his old Digivice out of his pants pocket and held it out for them to see. Even after all this time, he rarely left home without it. “It’s called a Digivice,” he explained awkwardly.

“A Digivice, huh? But why did it just appear like that?” Cody asked, still staring at the device in his hands. TK took a moment to compare them, easily seeing the differences between his and the new ones - theirs being larger and oval-shaped, with handgrips and a different button and antenna configuration. Yolei’s had dark red handgrips while Cody’s were yellow, a personalized touch that wasn’t present on the old ones.

“Well, it means that you’ve been chosen to help the Digital World.” TK paused as an idea struck him. “I know! Let’s head back to the computer lab and see if Izzy’s still there. He might have some idea what happened.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Yolei agreed, and Cody nodded to show he felt the same.

\- - -

“Prodigious! I never imaged this might happen!” Izzy exclaimed, looking at the group of students before him. He had just finished explaining the basics of what the Digital World and Digivices were, and was still stunned by this turn of events. Yolei and her neighbour had gone to phone home, but had insisted the meeting continue without them.

“So Digimon and the Digital World are real, then? Tai wasn’t just telling some story?” Davis asked, looking both surprised and excited at the idea.

“Yes, he was very much telling the truth. Tai, TK, Kari, myself and some others helped save that world about three and a half years ago. I had hoped that everything would remain peaceful, but apparently a new threat has appeared,” he explained grimly. Tai had been right after all - something big was happening in the Digital World, and new DigiDestined had been chosen as a result.

“Wait, you know Tai?” TK asked in surprise.

“They sure do. They’re on the same soccer team,” Kari answered, giving him a faint smile. “They’re both good players, too.”

“I see…” TK paused for a moment, then added, “If the Digital World is in trouble, then we have to help it. You said Tai was already there?”

“Yes, he went through earlier,” Izzy confirmed with a nod. “I was going to join him, but my laptop battery died before I was able to. Then, just after I re-established communication with him here, four beams of light shot out of the computer screen and went out the door. Tai said five balls of light appeared after he touched an unusual-looking Digiegg and flew off. Obviously, they were carrying the Digivices you now hold.”

“Five? But only four of us got new Digivices, - Davis, Leah, Cody and Yolei,” Kari pointed out. “TK and I still have the older models, like you do.”

“Oh. Hmm.” Izzy sat back and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Then there is another new DigiDestined somewhere.” They would have to be found quickly, but he wasn’t sure how to go about doing that. The computer behind him chimed then, and he twisted around to see that a new e-mail had appeared in his inbox. “Ah, another message from Tai. It looks like the ravaging Digimon who were around before are gone now, so it’s safe to enter.”

“Awesome! Let’s go then!” Davis exclaimed, raised a clenched fist in excitement. Everyone else eagerly agreed, so Izzy moved aside to give them clear access to the computer screen.

“Good luck, and be careful. We don’t know what we’re dealing with yet,” he said cautiously as Kari stepped up and held out her Digivice.

“Thanks Izzy. We will,” she answered, the screen glowing brightly and sucking her in a moment later. TK was next, a determined look on his face as the portal opened for him.

“Uh…” Davis stared at the screen, clearly intimidated by the fact his two classmates had just been sucked into a computer. Leah, on the other hand, simply looked impressed.

“Going, Davis? Surely you’re not scared?” Izzy prodded, hiding a smile. It might have been better for him to go first.

“O-Of course not!” the boy snapped back, shaking his head furiously and taking a step towards the waiting computer.

“Hey Davis. Let’s go together, alright?” Leah suggested, moving to stand next to him and giving her classmate an encouraging smile.

“Yeah!” Davis agreed, and they held out their Digivices together. A bright flash of light, and they were gone. Izzy stepped in front of the computer and held out his own Digivice, eager to return to the world and his partner he had left behind.

“Hold on! What did I miss?!” Yolei’s sudden arrival made him fumble and nearly drop the device.

“Ack! U-Um, well…the others just left to go to the Digital World and see what the trouble is,” he answered shakily. “And I was just about to do the same.”

“Wait, you’re just going to leave this place unattended? What if the janitor or someone walks in and shuts the computer down?” she demanded, hands on her hips. “And you can’t leave it up to me, since I don’t know how to get that portal back up if something happens.”

“Ah, right.” Unfortunately, she had a good point. “Then I guess we’ll be staying here. Wasn’t your neighbour with you?”

“Cody? He was, but he went home to pick up some snacks since we were all staying late. He shouldn’t be too long,” she replied, dragging two chairs over and settling into one of them. “While we wait, could you tell me how the connect to the Digital World? I mean, we can’t rely on you all the time to open the portal for us.”

Nodding, Izzy sat down as well and began to explain it as simply as he could. Once Yolei’s neighbour returned, he could tell them what they had missed.

\- - -

“Ken! Sorry I’m late!” The Digimon Emperor smiled faintly as Takako wrapped her arms around him in a loose hug, pleased that she had arrived.

“Held up, were you?” he asked, turning away from the array of screens to look at her.

“Yeah. Kai insisted on meeting me after school and walking home with me. Like I was a little kid who didn’t know the way or something,” she said dismissively, clearly not impressed with her cousin’s actions.

“Those inferior fools simply can’t understand that we’re smarter than them,” Ken agreed. His first day of classes had been utterly boring, as usual. Even with being in a specialized class, he was still surrounded by those who simply couldn’t match him in terms of intellect. At least his schedule gave him ample opportunity to check in on the Digital World during the day, unlike Takako.

“They can certainly be a nuisance sometimes. But enough about them. You said that deluded human was back again? What happened?” she pressed, absently running a hand through his spiked hair as she leaned against his throne.

“Nothing aside from the usual, unfortunately. I was able to delay his escape for a short while, but I had to leave for class. I assume he did the same,” Ken answered, calling up a screen displaying the jungle area where the human and his partner had been last seen. Well, former jungle area now.

“Ken! We’re supposed to be saving the Digital World, not destroying it!” Takako moaned as she looked at the devastation their slave army had caused.

“We _are_ saving it, Takako. I simply decided to redecorate a little bit to make it harder for them to hide. It can easily be fixed,” Ken said, idly jumping from camera to camera. He had recalled the Digimon just a short while ago upon getting word of a sighting of that irritating human in another sector, so the ruined jungle was quiet.

“Hm? What’s this?” There was a strange human and Digimon wandering amid the downed trees. His green jacket and pants labelled him as high-school student, and was wearing a blue headband with white goggles. His partner was Agumon, a small orange dinosaur species which Ken had heard about but never seen.

“What’s _he_ doing here?” Takako muttered, leaning forward to get a better look.

“Perhaps that traitorous fool managed to get reinforcements of some kind. Not that it matters much. Let’s watch and learn, shall we?”

“Yeah…” Sounding slightly upset, Takako slid into her throne which sat right next to Ken’s. Leaning back in his seat, the Digimon Emperor smiled. This was a very interesting development, but they were still going to win this game.

\- - -

“Nice, this place comes with an outfit change!” Davis grinned as he inspected the white shirt and blue jacket he now wore, admiring the flame pattern that decorated the bottom half of the jacket and sleeves and the fur trim around the collar. With that and the yellow gloves which had appeared on his hands, he thought he looked really cool. Ready to save the world, if that was really what he had been picked to do.

“Yeah, not bad,” Leah commented, and the boy turned and realized her clothes had changed. Gone were the turtleneck and skirt, replaced by a grey brown shirt, black denim jacket and blue jeans. Davis was surprised to realize that the clothes looked good on her - even better than the outfit she had worn to school. He guessed that she was one of those people who looked good in just about anything.

“What happened to this place?” the new kid asked softly and the boy saw that they were standing in what once had been a forest but was now a smoking wasteland of fallen trees and scorched ground.

“This is really bad…I hope Tai is alright,” Kari said, sounding horrified at what she was seeing.

“I’m sure he’s fine - didn’t Izzy say they were in contact with each other?” Davis replied, determined to boost his friend’s spirits.

“I’m picking up a signal from Tai’s Digivice, so he’s nearby.” The new kid frowned down at the small device in his hands, then started to walk away. “It’s coming from this direction, and it looks like there’s someone else with him.”

Kari quickly walked after her new friend, and Davis and Leah followed, the boy glancing around at the devastation. “The way Tai talked about this place, it seemed like there were monsters everywhere. It seems pretty quiet right now.”

“Yeah, but something had to cause all of this. Let’s hope they’re long gone,” Leah replied and Davis bit back a frown. This was a brand new world they were visiting, so there was no need to be too down about the damage, right? Surely it would grow back in time.

“Tai!” Kari’s relieved shout made him smile, and he watched as she dashed off among the fallen trees to go meet her brother.

They caught up to the pair a minute later and Davis’ eyes immediately landed on the small orange dinosaur standing next to the high school student. “Is that a Digimon?! Cool!”

“Davis? What are you doing here?” Tai asked in confusion as the boy bent down to get a better look at the dinosaur. The new kid answered him, but Davis was too busy to listen as the dinosaur stared back at him.

“Hi, Davis. I’m Agumon, Tai’s partner,” the dinosaur said pleasantly after a moment of surprise, and the boy grinned.

“Hi Agumon! This is so cool, I can’t believe this is happening!” Then a thought struck him and he looked up at Tai. “Wait, does everyone who comes here get a partner?”

“They sure do, Davis. I met Agumon a little after I first arrived here, so yours and Leah’s must be around here somewhere…” The older student paused for a second, then nodded to himself. “Follow me everyone, I have something to show you.”

Davis rose and followed Tai and Agumon, fists clenched in excitement. He hoped his partner would be as cool as Tai’s, but it didn’t have to be.

\- - -

Leah dropped to the back of the group as the filed after Tai and his partner, glancing down at the Digivice she still held. Unlike the others who had gotten more attractive colours for their handgrips - blue for Davis, dark red for Yolei and yellow for Cody - hers were a dull grey colour. It wasn’t like she disliked grey, she just thought something a little brighter would have been nice. At least it wasn’t pink. She hated pink, and was glad her father didn’t force her to wear that colour.

The snap of a twig behind them made her stop and turn, scanning the smouldering forest for signs of life. Was whatever had caused this still around? If so, she hoped Tai and Agumon would be able to protect them. Otherwise things might turn bad very quickly. Seeing nothing, she glared at the wasteland for a moment then trotted to catch up to the others. Perhaps it was nothing. Hopefully it was nothing.

\- - -

“So this thing’s a Digiegg? Whatever chicken laid that must be hurting,” Davis said, walking around the egg again. It was certainly one of the strangest things he had seen since arriving here, not that he had seen a whole lot of it.

“But since it has your crest on it, doesn’t that mean it belongs to you, Tai?” Kari asked her brother, looking between him and the Digiegg.

“I thought so, but I can’t even pick it up. I tried, and it weights a ton,” he replied, looking mildly concerned.

“Let me try, then. I’m pretty strong,” Leah said and Davis grinned at her comment. Maybe she was stronger than she looked. Bending down beside the DigiEgg, his new classmate wrapped her hands around it and pulled. He could tell by the look on her face that she was straining to lift it, but nothing happened. “Never mind,” she muttered sourly after a second attempt. “It’s not moving an inch.”

Kari tried next, but got the same result, and Davis gave her a sympathetic look. He had hoped she would have been able to lift the egg, but apparently not. Then the new kid stepped up next and made a similar try, groaning with the effort of trying to lift it. “Oh man, this thing is heavier than it looks!”

“Hey, let me try! I pump iron all the time!” Davis finally said, figuring he might as well try to move the Digiegg. His blonde classmate stepped back to give him room, and the boy bent down, carefully gripping the spiked egg in his hands. He could lift this thing no problem.

Taking a deep breath, he focused on the Digiegg. It almost seemed warm, which was weird, but it was an egg after all. Maybe whatever was inside was ready to hatch. “Arrrgggh!” he cried, pulling as hard as he could. “Ahh!” A moment later he had toppled backwards onto his butt, the Digiegg in his hands.

“Heavy? This thing’s as light as a feather!” Well not really, but it wasn’t near as heavy as the others made it out to be. Everyone was looking at him in surprise, but their attention was quickly grabbed by the pillar of red light that shot out of a hole the egg had been sitting on. Davis stared as well, watching as a form materialized in the centre of the pillar. It grew in size, and he realized it was a creature of some sort, curled up as if asleep. That didn’t last long, however, for the creature quickly uncurled, opened its eyes and bounded onto the cave floor.

“I’m free, I’m free!” it chanted, bouncing in a circle around him in apparent joy. “I was in there for so long and now I’m free and it’s all thanks to you!” It stopped in front of Davis and held out a hand. “I’m Veemon, your partner!”

“Uh…hi. I’m Davis.” Veemon was short, mostly blue and kinda looked like a young child if someone were to squint hard enough. This wasn’t the way he had imagined getting his partner, but whatever. Veemon shook his hand and smiled, clearly glad to see him.

“Nice to meet you, Davis! I know we’ll do great together!”

“So…what’s this thing then?” Davis asked, holding up the weird Digiegg as he climbed to his feet.

“That’s the Digiegg of Courage, which will allow me to fight our enemies better,” his new partner replied cheerfully, looking around at the others.

“Speaking of enemies, what exactly is going on here?” Tai asked, focusing on the blue two-legged Digimon at the boy’s side.

“Yeah, I’d like to know, too. Something bad is happening, but I haven’t been able to find out much except that a human is involved,” Agumon said, shifting uneasily as his partner shot him a disapproving look.

“Who’s there?!” Davis jumped at Leah’s snap, and turned quickly to see her glaring at the tunnel leading out of the cave. When nothing happened, she spoke again. “I know you’re there - come out or else.” The boy wondered exactly what ‘or else’ meant, but he wasn’t able to find out because a pale face peered from around the curve of the tunnel wall.

“You’re a Gazimon from the forest, right? Why are you still here?” Agumon asked in surprise, and the Digimon nodded hesitantly before speaking.

“I couldn’t run because I could tell you were coming soon, and I wanted to meet you as quickly as possible,” Gazimon replied, revealing herself to be female.

“Someone told you I was coming?” Tai sounded confused, and Davis frowned. Was there such a thing as a psychic Digimon?

“No, not you,” Gazimon shook her head and advanced a little into the cave, gaze focused on the girl who stood beside Davis. “You’re Leah, right? I’m your partner, Gazimon.”

\- - -

“You’re…my partner?” Leah repeated slowly, staring at the Digimon in front of her. Gazimon looked a bit like a cat with light purple fur, or perhaps a mutant rabbit. Either way, she had been expecting something a little more normal for a partner. Then again…she had no idea how to describe Veemon except that he was blue and vaguely human-like, so perhaps this was normal for Digimon.

“Yep, you’re stuck with me, whether you like it or not,” Gazimon answered, walking up to her and holding out a paw tipped with ridiculously long claws.

“Ok…then hi.” Careful not to impale herself on the claws, she shook her new partner’s paw reluctantly. “So how’d you know I was coming, anyway?”

“I don’t know…it was just a feeling I had. That’s why I couldn’t run away when the Digimon Emperor attacked.” Gazimon frowned then, but brightened a little as she looked at the others.

“Digimon Emperor?! Is that the human Agumon mentioned?” Tai asked quickly, and Gazimon nodded.

“Yes. The Digital World has been under attack by a human for some time now, and he calls himself the Digimon Emperor. He enslaves Digimon using Dark Rings and forces them to do his bidding,” Leah gritted her teeth in growing anger. How could a human do something like this? Slavery was wrong, no matter what the intention behind it.

“That’s horrible…” TK muttered, echoing her thoughts.

“That Digimon Emperor! I’ll put a Dark Ring on him!” Kari exclaimed, and Leah looked at her in mild surprise. Clearly her classmate wasn’t as sweet-tempered as she appeared to be.

“Agumon, why didn’t you know about this?” Tai asked, looking down at his partner with a frown on his face. “We left you guys here to protect the Digital World!”

“We have been, Tai! I heard about attacks occurring before this, but I didn’t realize it was this bad! And there were only rumours about a human being involved…” Agumon looked upset, and Tai bent down to pat him on the head.

“That’s understandable - very few Digimon escape capture, and most who do get destroyed,” Gazimon said softly.

“Hey, don’t look so glum! Fighting this Emperor guy must be what we were called here to do!” Davis exclaimed, and Veemon nodded vigorously in agreement.

“Yeah! I’m sure we’ll be able to beat him in no time!”

Leah hid a smile, pleased that someone was optimistic about the situation that they had suddenly been plunged in. But being too optimistic was a bad thing, since it could lead to someone getting hurt.

“Gazimon, what else do you know?” Tai asked, and everyone focused back on her partner. Leah looked at her as well, curious to know how she knew so much when Agumon didn’t.

\- - -

“How dare you insult Ken! I’ll pay you back for that, you pink brat!” Takako growled in fury, and Ken reached over to pat her hand soothingly. He didn’t care much about the threat the girl with the camera had made towards him - she would never be powerful enough to get close to him, let alone harm him.

“Now, now, calm down. The Dark Rings don’t work on humans, remember?” If they had, he would already have that human and his partner under his control. “Hmm…Time to break their little chit-chat up, I think.” The fact that the Gazimon even knew about him was interesting, but irrelevant.

“Now who shall I send to play with you…?” An array of buttons arranged in a square appeared before his raised hand, and the Emperor thought for a moment. “Eenie, meenie, miney, mon,” he muttered, pressing a button on the last syllable. An image of a large, four-legged dinosaur looking vaguely like a Triceratops but with only one long horn projecting from its nose appeared on a side-screen and he smiled. Yes, this slave would do nicely.

“Go, Monochromon!” Time to see what these fools had in them.

\- - -

“So this human is doing something that prevents you from Digivolving…well, that explains things a bit,” Tai said, arms crossed as he thought.

Davis shifted and resisted the urge to sigh. Talking over stuff was all well and good, but he wanted to get out there and start kicking the Emperor’s butt. From what Gazimon had said, this guy had already taken control of a large portion of the Digital World.

“Ack!” he yelped a second later as the ground began to shake. “Is it an earthquake?”

“No, look up there!” Davis followed the new kid’s pointing finger and saw that something was ripping apart the small hole in the roof of the cave. The creature bellowed and broke through some more, and he realized there was a big black and grey dinosaur with glowing red eyes about to come crashing down on top of them.

“Run!” Davis heard Tai’s shout, but his gaze was fixed on the dinosaur as it opened its mouth and spat out what looked like a huge ball of fire. How were they supposed to fight this?! “Davis, come on!”

“Ahhh, yeah!” Bolting out of the way of the fireball, he felt the heat from it on the back of his jacket as it slammed into the cave floor.

“Davis, use the Digiegg of Courage so I can fight!” Veemon said as they ran down the tunnel towards the exit.

“This thing? But how?” he panted, holding up the weird egg in his hand. This place was strange alright, but even he wasn’t convinced that some egg could help them win against the dinosaur behind them.

“Use your courage to unlock it and shout ‘DigiArmor Energize!’” his partner urged, voice raised to be heard over the bellows of the Digimon chasing them.

They ran out of the cave a moment later, and Davis bent over to catch his breath. “That was close!” This place was intense!

“Down here!” Tai called from the bottom of the short cliff the cave was located on, and the boy nodded in acknowledgment. But before he had a chance to slide down, Veemon shoved him forward with a warning shout, sending them tumbling out of the way of another blast of fire.

“Uhhh…I don’t wanna do that again…” Davis sat up with a groan, raising a hand to his head to make sure his goggles were ok. Luckily, they were fine, but he had something bigger to worry about. “Kari!” She was down on the ground, apparently injured, and it was all his fault. If he had just been a little faster…

“Davis, use your courage so I can Digivolve!” Veemon said, giving him a determined look. “If you do that, I know we can win!”

“It’s worth a try,” Tai answered as he jogged back to them, and Davis took a deep breath. It was all up to him, if what Veemon said was true. The new kid and Agumon joined them a moment later, both looking worried at the situation they were now in. The boy looked over at Kari again, relieved to see that Leah and Gazimon were helping her to her feet. Good, she wasn’t seriously injured.

A loud roar made them all look up, and Davis gasped as he saw that the enslaved Digimon had leapt off the cliff above them and was heading right towards Kari and Leah. The ground trembled as the dinosaur landed, and he made up his mind. He had to save Kari!

“You want courage, I‘ll show you courage!” he cried, rising to his feet and holding up the Digiegg. He would do anything to save Kari, even if that meant fighting that humungous Digimon by himself! “DigiArmor Energize!”

The Digiegg glowed red in his hands, and Veemon was quickly enveloped by raging flames. “Veemon Armour Digivolove to…Flamedramon, the fire of courage!”

Davis stared in a mixture of surprise and delight as the flames vanished to reveal his Digivolved partner. Flamedramon looked like a mature Veemon in terms of a blue body with a white chest, but his hands, feet, head, knees and upper chest was covered in armour that bore the same flame design as the Digiegg of Courage. The metal blade that was present on the Digiegg now curved upwards from the middle of Flamedramon’s forehead, making him look even more fierce.

With a few running steps and a leap, Flamedramon slammed into the side of the dinosaur Digimon, sending it crashing onto its side and away from Kari and Leah.

“Armor Digivolve?” Tai echoed in surprise, and Davis saw that his classmates and Gazimon had similar looks of surprise on their faces.

“That’s awesome!” For his part, Davis was impressed that his partner had managed to stop such a huge creature with one hit. “Go get ‘em, Flamedramon!”

His partner needed no further urging, giving his opponent a level stare as the other Digimon climbed to his feet and charged towards him. Davis clenched his hands as he watched Flamedramon block the charge and flip the dinosaur with little effort. Letting out a roar of anger as it climbed to its feet, the Digimon opened its mouth and spat out three fireballs. “Volcanic Strike!”

Flamedramon proceeded to bat them away like flies, charging towards his opponent with the intention on attacking. But the other Digimon was ready, throwing Davis’ partner high into the air upon contact with one toss of its head. Davis gasped as he watched Flamedramon fly through the air, worried about what the throw might do to him, but his partner had one more surprise in store.

“Fire Rocket!” Bright flames once again engulfed Flamedramon from head to toe, and he hovered in the air for a moment before plunging down towards the other Digimon.

“Aim for the Dark Ring, Flamedramon!” Gazimon cried, and Davis let himself grin as his partner hit the black ring around the dinosaur’s body dead-on. Clearly, both of them had perfect aim. The attacking Digimon slid to the ground as the black band cracked and disappeared, and as the flames faded from Flamedramon’s body, he glowed and reverted back to Veemon.

“Huh?” Davis looked down at his Digivice as the Digiegg was sucked into it, then stiffened as a bust of light came out of it and his jacket pocket became heavy. “What’s this?” he muttered, taking out the odd device that had just appeared in his pocket and flipping the top up to see an outline of an egg on the screen that was on the inside. Deciding that it didn’t matter much, he put that and his Digivice away and ran over to make sure Kari and Leah were ok.

\- - -

“Bye, Monochromon!” Leah smiled slightly as Kari waved to the departing Digimon.

“So that’s the power of the Digimon Emperor…” Gazimon muttered, and she looked down at her partner. She didn’t really understand everything that had happened today, but she was confident she would soon.

“I can’t believe that the Digimon Emperor could turn such a peaceful creature into such a nasty Digimon…” TK said, and she turned to see that he was frowning slightly.

“But that’s why we’re here, right? To beat this guy?” Davis asked as he walked up, Veemon by his side. Leah was still impressed at the power that Digiegg had. Maybe there was a way for Gazimon to Digivolve so she could fight this Digimon Emperor, too.

“That’s probably it. I’m sorry we couldn’t fight alongside you, but we’ll do everything we can to help out,” Tai said, looking at them and smiling.

“Yeah! I know you new guys will beat him no problem,” Agumon added and Davis grinned.

“Just leave it to me! I’ll show that guy who’s the boss!” he boasted and Veemon gave his partner a thumbs up in agreement.

“Look at that, the sun’s going down. Everyone can relax now,” Gazimon said with relief.

“Why’s that?” Leah asked, noting that the sunset they were witnessing looked a lot like a sunset from home. Obviously, some things were the same no matter where you were.

“The rumours I heard say that the Digimon Emperor never appears at night,” her partner explained with a smile.

“I guess it is getting late…I just hope we can still go home,” Tai said, turning and looking at the ruined jungle around them. “I have no idea how long the portal will stay open, or if Izzy would be able to connect again if it closed while we were still here. That’s why you guys should never stay too long. Even without the Digimon Emperor, this isn’t a place you want to be trapped in.”

Leah bit her lip and looked at the ground. Her father would flip if she didn’t come home at a reasonable hour. Come to think of it, he was probably getting worried already. Perhaps she should have called home like the others. “Then let’s find the spot we came in by and see if we can leave,” she said, looking up to see if the others agreed. They did, so Tai led them back the way they had come.

\- - -

“How amusing…it seems like we have found a worthy foe at last!” Ken exclaimed as he watched the group leave. There was no point in sending another Digimon after them now - like them, he had to return home, as much as he was loathe to.

“Armor Digivolving, huh? Well, at least they’re more resourceful than that other human,” Takako said grudgingly, and he turned slightly to look at her. She brightened upon noticing his gaze, and said more cheerfully, “Do you want to come to my place for dinner, Ken? Kai has practice, so there’s lots of food.”

While the thought of putting up with Takako’s aunt and uncle made him cringe, he needed more time to fill his Empress in on all the day’s events. So he smiled and nodded in agreement, “Dinner sounds lovely, yes. I’ll go inform my parents, and be over as soon as possible.”

“Great!” She beamed at him, then sprang from her throne. “I’ll go tell Aunt Chie that you’re coming. See you soon!” Ken settled back in his chair as she went to leave, deciding to relax for a few more minutes before returning home himself.


End file.
